


is life and death still all that we know

by necromantrix



Series: anthem for the already deceased [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, look... they're best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8552947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necromantrix/pseuds/necromantrix
Summary: “All—all right. There’s a lot of Julia’s over there, but—never mind. I—I’m kidding. I know who you’re talking about.” How well he knows who Magnus is referring to hits him suddenly, and he feels like a complete idiot for not realizing it sooner.





	

           A lot happens at once. The giant hand completely fucking _destroying_ him by slamming him repeatedly into the ground of the Astral Plane is an unwelcome surprise, interrupting his plans to drag those three souls back with him and destroying his form almost instantly, and then slamming him quite suddenly into a cell in the Eternal Stockade.

           It’s a moment or two more before Kravitz even has the wherewithal to grasp the situation—which is, simply put, a mess. Bounty hunters and other physically manifested souls in the Raven Queen’s employ are frantically running around the halls and trying to make sense of this mass breakout. So is he, but his biggest concern at this moment is securing some semblance of a physical form back. He’s locked in a cell as a glowing orb and he has no way of getting out or in touch with anyone. No one seems to be running in the direction of this cellblock, either. _Perfect_.

           He takes a moment to focus on reconstructing his form, and slowly bones begin to take shape around the center of his being until he can grasp the stone of farspeech once more. “Uh, hey. It’s Kravitz. I get that this breakout probably has you hammered with work stuff, but, uh, I’m currently trapped in cell…” He peers out through the bars, quickly mapping out what cell he must be in based on the ones around him. “I’m trapped in cell F2108. Long story, I promise I’ll catch you up later, but you think you can unlock it from there?”

           A woman’s voice comes over the line, sounding just as stressed out as everybody else in this building. “Hold up one second. Sorry, all the cells are open right now and it’s… kind of a disaster on this end. Uh… There you go, that _should_ do it,” she says as the door before him unlocks and he can swing it open.

           “Thanks,” he says as he sets off at a brisk jog down the hallway, skin knitting over bone and cloak billowing out behind him as he goes. “I’m heading your way. There are some things that… There are lots of things to do and I need someone to discuss them with.”

           Kravitz passes over his office in favor of another one a few doors down. The door’s open already—no doubt due to people rushing in and out in this chaos—and he closes and locks it behind himself as he steps inside. It’s a comfortingly solid pressure against his back as he leans against it, exhaling a heavy sigh.

           “What happened?” she asks him, her eyes not looking up as she glances over papers and devices both mundane and magical.

           “I was, uh, I was hoping _you’d_ know,” he says as he pushes off the door and begins pacing. She glances up at him for a moment, and he knows she can read the anxiety in him as clearly as she can read the forms in her hands. The way that his fingers are twisting on another would be clue enough, but he _never_ paces. “Oh, gods, this is going to be the end of me if it doesn’t get figured out…”

           “The end of you? Why?”

           “My career,” he explains, and she nods in understanding. Their physical existence is linked to their employment under the Raven Queen; if they get fired or resign, they become just another soul adrift in the Astral Plane. “Shit, shit, shit…”

           “Kravitz?” she asks, and when he stops and looks over at her he sees that she’s looking at the magical board used to keep track of which cells are occupied. It’s not her usual job to mess with these things, but she has access just in case something happens—something like this, apparently. “A few cells just filled up again.”

           “What?” He rounds the desk to look at the panel himself, and sure enough about five of the lights are on to indicate the cells being locked. “Huh. Maybe they’ll manage to…” He trails off, deep in thought. “This was a world-class fuck-up and I don’t know whose fault it is, but maybe—maybe they’ll all fix it.”

           “They?” she asks him.

           “I was after quite a few bounties, all in one place. Somehow. If they fix this I might just… I might have to pardon them.”

           “That’s awfully generous of you.”

           “I know,” Kravitz says as he sits down in the chair on the other side of her desk; he isn’t exactly looking forward to what it’ll look like on his record, but he also doesn’t know how comfortable he’d be with taking their souls after they save his job.

           The best thing to do, he decides, is to wait it out and see what happens; no sense in plunging himself into the undoubtedly chaotic fray. Instead he sits in the comfortable familiarity of the office space as she works rapidly, allowing the usual sounds of bureaucracy to soothe his frazzled nerves as much as possible.

           Suddenly someone’s voice comes over her stone of farspeech, sounding panicked and uncertain. “ _Fuck_ ,” they begin, and then stop abruptly, clearly unsure of how to continue after such incisive commentary. “Okay, so, uh… Whatever happened? With the souls all leaving?” Kravitz leans forward in his chair to listen. “They all just came back. Like, all at once? Something sent them back here. Most, uhhh…. Most made it back into their cells, too. Like, there are a _few_ we gotta situate, but for the most part… I think it’s over?” Sure enough, the whole time they’d been talking, the board was filling up rapidly with lights until the entire thing was lit up like an exceptionally tasteless Candlenights tree.

           Kravitz exhales a deep sigh of relief as he stands up. “I—I should get going now. Sorry to add to your workload, but I think… I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a quite a few more forms when I get back.”

           She shrugs, marking something unintelligible on one of the many papers strewn across her desk. “It’s my job. Hop to it.”

\---

           To his surprise, things actually go rather well (lackluster game of high card draw aside). He’s only going back with one soul recovered, leaving one actively pardoned for a set period, and forgiving four for their transgressions altogether—all four are still going to be on a closely-monitored watch list, but they each sort-of promise not to be any more trouble for a while. At least the situation is temporarily resolved.

           “Tell Julia I said I love her.” The words catch Kravitz somewhat off-guard, and he flounders momentarily.

           “All—all right. There’s a lot of Julia’s over there, but—never mind. I—I’m kidding. I know who you’re talking about.” How well he knows who Magnus is referring to hits him suddenly, and he feels like a complete idiot for not realizing it sooner. Some part of him also feels like this was set up, but he lets that thought go for now.

\---

           Kravitz fills out the necessary forms in his office first, demarcating the time limit on Noelle’s (or No3113 now, he guesses) existence, as well as the status of Lucas, Taako, Magnus, and Merle as forgiven but closely observed for potential future infractions.

           Forms completed, he makes his way down the hall to the office he was in earlier, tapping twice on the half-open door before leaning his head in. “Uh, hello,” he says, and when she nods at him he walks into the room and hands her the papers.

           She fans through them quickly, raising a brow at him. “Five Form D’s to one Form A? That’s rough, Kravitz.”

           He sighs and sits down. “I know, I know. I’m—I don’t regret it, I don’t think. Not yet, at least.”

           “Hm.” She looks through the forms again, reading over the names and the reasons for pardoning. “You still have to pitch these to the Raven Queen?”

           “Yeah, I sure do. I also… I also have to explain—” He stops when he sees her staring at one of the Form D’s, a hand clamped over her mouth and tears welling in her eyes.

           “Julia…”

           “He—he’s out there? What has he got himself into…?”

           Kravitz shakes his head. “I don’t know,” he tells her, his voice soft. “But he’s died nineteen times and doesn’t seem to remember any of them.” He isn’t sure if he’s supposed to be telling her this, but he doesn’t see why she can’t know. There’s no rule against it. “The two he’s travelling with, they—they’ve died a lot, too.

           “I don’t know what he’s involved in, Julia, but he told me to tell you that he loves you.”

           She keeps her hand clamped over her mouth as she begins to shake with quiet sobs, but he can see a sad smile in her expression too. “You pardoned him?” she breathes, and he can see the mixed emotions flicker across her face: confusion, gratitude, fear.

           He nods once. “Yeah, he—I think all three of them are involved in some… _weird shit_ ,” he explains. “I think there’s something bigger going on here, and it wouldn’t feel right to bring them in after they banished all the prisoners back here anyway.” She nods and wipes her eyes, and he reaches across the desk to take one of her hands. “It’ll be alright. Look, I—I’ll keep an eye on them, okay? I’ll keep an eye on _him_. Make sure their death counts don’t go up more. I’ll talk to the Raven Queen, see if I can talk her into dropping their bounties. I’ll do what I can.” He normally wouldn’t agree to this, but his personal curiosity means he’ll be keeping an eye on them anyways.

           Julia smiles a little as she wipes her eyes again, sniffling. “Thanks, Kravitz.”

           He squeezes her hand once before letting go and standing. “I guess I should go see about getting those bounties dropped. Wish me luck,” he says. “I think I’ll need it.”

           “Hey, Kravitz?”

           He turns around. “Yeah?”

           “Does it ever get easier?”

           He hesitates briefly. He doesn’t want to lie to her, but it’s been so long since he’s lost anyone that he honestly doesn’t remember it ever being difficult. “I think so,” he tells her slowly. “I think it does. You’ll be fine, Julia. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> I suddenly have a lot of feelings and headcanons about Krav and Julia being undead besties (as well as headcanons about the Raven Queen's employees as a whole). Again, thank you to the kind folks on the discord, and another special shoutout to vasilyssa for editing this one as well. Your help is really, really great. I mean that.
> 
> The title of this one's from Ebb and Flow by Larry and His Flask. The title of the series (which is just going to be about Krav and Julia being dead bffs) is based on Anthem For The Already Defeated by Rock Plaza Central.


End file.
